Chapter XIV
What sufferings we must necessarily undergo before that God settles and
strengthens us in any eminent manner. The reasons why we must pass
through such sufferings before we are perfected. The example of our Saviour
The wise appointment of God, who has so appointed it to be for the trial of
our grace, and to glorify his own grace the more in strengthening, recovering,
398 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
recovering, and delivering us. What encouragements we may draw even
from this necessity of our suffering.
After you have suffered a while. 1 PET. V. 10.
I come now to the limitation annexed, or the necessary prerequisite for us to undergo before that God strengthens, settles us, in any eminent man ner in this life. And therein,
1. That God hath set down with himself a necessity of our suffering, and undergoing out-ward sufferings and also inward temptations to sin, and from sin, I shall afterwards treat. It is strange that the apostle should not make an absolute promise of it, and roundly to have said,
* he will strengthen,
&c., but he must clog the promise with a proviso (for such it is), After ye have suffered a while ; nor that Peter (if it be a prayer) should not have the
heart to pray for any one of his brethren, the saints, absolutely and directly, that God would perfect them, settle them, &c., but his prayer in the course
of it must be interrupted, and checked, as it were, with this interposition, which his wish could not step over; not as for any one saint, but that he must
first put in, after ye hare suffered. It must be because he knew il was the
will of God (which he had told us was the sole arbiter of our sufferings), and that not as to some few, but to the brotherhood, or fraternity of saints
in the world, that live any while after calling ; for that restriction also the words do suppose, who hath called you, and then suffered a while after. The necessity of this must be wholly resolved into the will and determina
tion of God. He will have it so. There needs no other proof for it than the instance of our Lord himself,
Christ, that was set up, as our pattern in all things else ; and so in this
: Heb. ii. 10, It became him, for whom are all
necessity of suffering
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. That God who ordained Christ, the chieftain, the general, the leader of all his children, whom he bringeth unto glory, was himself led this way ; both they and he
are, and was to pass the pikes. The captain, Christ himself, broke through, and then carries us through an opposite army of sufferings, under which
temptations are included, as verse 18 of that chapter shews, For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are
tempted. Yea, and Christ himself is made perfect by it, consummate in
glory.
When one would train up a person of worth, and fit him for great affairs, he gives him all sorts of breeding to make him complete every way, and (as you use to speak) a complete man, a perfect man, as the apostle speaks. But when the great God would give his own Son an education worthy of such and so great a person, and fit him to rule, and be over all things, he chooseth to train him up through sufferings, so to make him perfect through sufferings a strange education, and way of bringing up the King of all the world, as in that chapter the apostle had afore proclaimed him to be. Bat look, as there it is said, he was made perfect through sufferings, so we here, after ye have suffered a while, he will perfect you. And truly the grounds and bottom reason why God so ordained for his Son is resolved by the apostle into two things.
(1.) God s sovereignty and will. He would have obedience from him in
the way of suffering at his command.
(2.) And, secondly, though he might have saved us by him another way,
CHAP. XIV.] or ELECTION. gqg
yet he would have our salvation carried on and accomplished that way, even through sufferings and temptations.
(1.) For the first, God s will was to teach even him, his so great a S-n, obedience, submission. And to know he was a Sou unto so great a God you have it express, Heb. v. 8, Though he were a Son, yet learned lie obedience by the things which he suffered. Though he were a Son ; that
is, though he were so great a Son (and how great a Son he was, and is, you may see in verse 5,
* Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ; which chap. i. verse 5, he says, was never said to any mere creature). At d his Father had a will to this, that he should shew this obedience in suffer
ing, which therefore was in the highest obedience and submission.
And truly, in that very place cited, chap. ii. 18, you see how that God resolves his will in this matter into his own greatness, as the reason why he did so will and order it : It became him from whom are all things, and by whom are all things ; that is, he being so great a God that was Ins Father, he would be thus regarded, and respected, reverenced, and in this way obeyed by his Son ; and it became God to enjoin this on him.
(2.) For the second, that however, God would have our salvation so carried on, is evident, so as if Christ would undertake to be the leader of us to glory, he must do it by sufferings, and be himself our leader and chieftain therein! I will not say this was absolutely necessary for God to order it so, though the word here comes near to this elsewhere : as Heb. vii. 29, Such \\n high priest became us ; that is, was necessarily requisite for us. Bat it is certain it was comely, and above all things else a glory to God to have it HO. Says God, I that am the end of all things, and the author of all things, Ih.ive one design my heart is in above all, concerns me more than all, and that is, the bringing of many sons to glory ; and I will have it done by Bufferings, and though I might accomplish it otherwise, yet I think it meet to have" it so. And both he that is to undertake to be their captain, to bring them to
glory ( termed the Captain of their salvation ), he in conducting and lead
ing them on to that glory must and shall suffer, and they also that are con ducted must march and go the same way, and that of suffering.
To confirm this, we find a mmt is put upon Christ s sufferings. So Christ
says of himself, The Son of man must suffer, Mat. xvi. 21 ; and Luke
xvii. 25, He must suffer; and John iii. 14, The Son of man must be
lifted up ; and an ought is put upon it : Luke xxiv. 26, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ? And wherein lay the necessity, the strength of that must, or ought ? Merely in God s so
ordaining it : Acts iv. 28, To do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
You would think with yourselves, Sure if Christ were ever tempted by the
devil, it would merely and only arise from the devil s malice ; but the evan
gelist expressly tells us, Mat. iv. 1, Jesus was led by the Spirit, to be
tempted, &c. Christ was our leader, and so suffered being tempted. So the Spirit of God was his leader, the leader of him into temptation. Now look, as there was this necessity laid on him to be made this way
perfect, so also the like* necessity laid upon us by the same will and hand : Rom. viii. 29, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born
amongst many brethren. And this is particularly spoken in relation to
sufferings. And as Christ had his ought and must, so have we : Acts xiv. 22, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. A strange way of comforting, strengthening, and confirming the
400 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
brethren, but it was the common principle the primitive Christians were
trained up unto.
The reasons for this, which in the Scriptures are more usually rendered, are drawn a consequenti, or d parte post ; that is, from the good consequence and fruit of them, as from the usefulness and profitableness, Heb. xii. 10; and that he delights to try our graces
: Prov. iii. 12, For whom the Lord
loveth he correcteth ; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth ; and he trieth the righteous, Ps. cv. ; and 1 Peter i. 7,
* That the trial of
your faith may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appear
ing of Jesus Christ ; which Job also hath, chap, xxiii. 10. God therefore boasted of his servant Job, chap. i. 8, as a general useth to boast of a great and noble champion. There are these, and many the like, which the Scrip tures hold forth.
But these are not those I am in the inquest after at this time, but the
great query is, d parte ante, that is, what should move God, who might have
brought us into salvation another way ; yet so as no way would or did please him but this, they must be very great ends. I shall take those that hold
correspondency with the text.
1. He is set forth in this, as a God of all grace (you will wonder, per haps, at this reason of all other), and therefore ordained it to choose to bring us and Christ through sufferings and temptations to glory. Grace had the
first choice of us, and therewith of the way of bringing us to salvation ; and where grace sets itself most to love, there it ordains the most of afflic
tions and temptations. So of Paul (the next man in heaven to Christ), Acts xix. 15, 16,
* He is a chosen vessel to me ; some strange preferment sure befell this man, whom Christ doth so set out; but;in ver. 16, For I
will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name s sake. You have in this God s everlasting design upon him in bringing him to glory, as contrived in his first choice of him ; and you see a must falls upon him too, and it is free grace s passing it upon him when it chose him to salvation. But still you will say, Why is it that grace should do this ? to expose those whom it loves thus to sufferings and temptations ? Truly,
(1.) Because grace is seen and discovered most in helping us and reliev
ing us. Heb. iv. 16, you read of a throne erected, and it is a throne of
grace. But what is it that doth establish and exalt that throne ? Truly, helping us in time of need. In the execution thereof is exercised much
of the dominion and sovereignty of grace, seen even in sending seasonable succour and relief unto men suffering and distressed, in giving forth grace and mercy suitable to their needs in sufferings.
(2.) And together herewith, God affected to confound his enemies that would be opposite to us. This of grace is a monarchy, as you see in that
text. And great monarchies use to shew their greatness by victories over and subduing rebels and enemies that are incurable. Says God, I have set up Pharaoh, to shew whether he or I be the greater king, and leaves him
to do his worst. And so in the text, you have the devil your enemy, and God lets him range up and down as if he were loose, and he is at one end
of every temptation or other. Our lusts are the sea that trouble and toss within us, but the devil is the wind that stirs up those waves. Christ by
curbing, restraining, rebuking him, defeating him by us weak creatures, shews his power. And God, to shew his grace towards us, affects not barely to save us, and that effectually, to shew himself a God of grace to us, but in the doing of it to still and foil the enemies and avengers, he put this very thing into that first gospel which he preached,
* He shall bruise thy heel, but thou shalt break his head.
CHAP. XIV.] OF ELECTION. 401
2. A second reason the text holds a correspondency with is, that we are called into eternal glory ; so great a glory, as that God thought it meet we should know evil first, ere we arrived at that height of happiness. I have often considered concerning the man Jesus,, that whereas the prophet David, prophesying of his exaltation, had only expressed what was matter of glory, Ps. Ixviii. 18, Thou hast ascended on high, &c., what it should be from which the apostle should infer ; as Eph. iv. 9, Now in that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. And my best resolve of it was chiefly from this, that God s ordination was, that ere he would have the man Jesus (whose right yet it was upon his per sonal union to have been in heaven the first moment of his being man) to ascend to that height of glory, not only in the heavens, but far above all heavens, as the apostle there, that ere he did it, he would have him descend first into the lowest parts of the earth, the lowest condition ; and this was so strange and wonderful a dealing of God with him, that in the next verse he proclaimed, it as a spectacle for God, angels, and men to view and behold ; that he, one and the same person, so abased and lowered first, should be after so exalted. Thus ver. 10, He that descended is the same also that ascended. And he seems to point to him that he, the same individual man, should be the subject of both; and as if he had said, was ever the like seen? The apostle doth the like,. 1 Tim. iiL 16, first, God manifest in theflesh, in an humble, frail condition, so he begins ; then received up into glory, so he ends ; and seen of angels, placed in the middle, as spectators and admirers of this so vastly differing a contrariety of condition.
As for us men, it is the law of sons, Heb. xii. 6, 2 Sam. vii. 14; it is the law for an heir to the crown of life,, the common law for the obtainment of
: JamS i. 12, Blessed is the man that endureth temptations : for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. And this notwithstanding God s love to them, which is the fundamental law of that law ; yea, and this became of God s love to them, so it follows,
glory
* Which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
And the further reason of this is,, that heaven is not simply joy and happi ness, but a glory ;. a glory won by conquest,
* to him that overcometh, as in every one of the seven epistles of the Revelation ; it is a crown won by mastery, 2 Tirn. ii. 5 ; and so by striving, according to certain laws set to be observed by those that win ; as it follows, And if a man also strive for
masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Whereof this
* It is a faithful saying
is the most eminent and chief, ver. 11, 12,
: for if we be dead with him, we shall live with him : if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. This is as true and as faithful a saying as the gospel of salvation itself is, even the same he had spoken in his first
epistle, chap. i. 15* And look what glory it is that by conquest and masteries is won is more valuable ; as Jacob said, The portion I won with
rny sword and my bow, this he gave to Joseph above his brethren, Gen.
xlviii. 22, which he therefore esteemed above any other. And thus saith Christ of us, and that glory he hath purchased for us ; and so shall we of
* we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, Rom. viii. You have seen the necessity of the apostle s putting in this clause, After you have suffered, which our flesh would perhaps have had left out; but he could not pass over and omit it, because God had not. Let us now, not
that glory to be revealed,
withstanding, see what comforts and encouragements this very addition will
afford us.
VOL. IX. C C
402 OF ELECTION, [BOOK IV.
As I fetched arguments of support and encouragement from each word in the text, so I shall add some from these words (as they have now been
opened) of this limitation, after ye have suffered a while. You will find that out of the strong and sour carcase of this dreadful lion (and to a lion, the chief instrument of our sufferings is compared, ver. 9) will come sweet ness.
To which purpose, my first observation is, that God, the God of all
1 temptations of all sorts ; not persecutions only from without, but temptations from sin or unto sin by Satan, and conflicts with Satan our adversary; and they are considered by him under the notion of our sufferings, which is a great matter unto us, and a part of deep
grace, looks at believers
<consolation.
Our apostle, to put an observaney upon this, chooseth to give that very name and denomination of sufferings unto our temptations. He hath put it up twice : first in ver. 9, Knowing that the same affliction ; and again, ver. 10, After ye have suffered a while, namely, under Satan s temptations
(it is all one and the same word in both verses). So then, if your souls have been brought to look at the temptations you have to sins, as your greatest afflictions, the God of all grace is pleased to reckon them such also. Many interpreters, because the word sufferings and afflictions is used of out ward miseries, would limit it unto outward persecutions for the profession of the faith, which the devil stirreth up against all the saints throughout the world. But Gerard, with Calvin and others, are full in it, that all sorts of
temptations, even unto sins, as well as persecutions for the faith, are in
tended, and that principally. Now unto the reasons at the first entrance of that first part of my dis course on this text, which shewed that it was a common engagement against Satan in point of sin, I shall add, as further strengthening to those then
given, some other out of the text, by drawing a line or kind of coherence through the whole paragraph, from ver. 8 to ver. 12 ; and the series of a text affords the strongest arguments. Here is, 1, an exhortation; 2, a danger ; 3, the encouragement against this ; and these three are all com mensurable.
1. An exhortation, Be sober and watchful, and, 2. A danger proposed, Because the devil goes up and down seeking whom he may devour, namely, if this watchfulness be neglected ; and the danger must be understood in respect of that which we are to watch against, and as
largely. Neither indeed can Satan indeed truly devour us any other way, than by drawing us unto satisfying those lusts, which we are to watch
against, to be sure not by persecutions, and then only by our yielding unto sin.
Then, 3, look how far sobriety and watchfulness do reach, and the danger set before them to back that, extendeth ; so far must also that other exhor tation that follows thereupon, namely, that resist stedfast in the faith, also reach. And what is that resistance, but to oppose him in all assaults, which shall be contrary unto that former sobriety ; and indeed, wherein is the devil resisted by us, but in resisting his temptations to sin ? Yea, says Calvin, be sober and watch, attenti ad resistendum, heedful to resist, so as he
brings down that former exhortation unto this of resisting ; and interpreteth also these words, stedfast in the faith, not of the doctrine of faith, but of the grace and exercise of faith, by which it is that temptations to sin are most resisted, called therefore the shield of faith; and this the parallel. of James and Peter do further manifestly confirm. God resisteth the proud, saith Peter, 1 Epist. v. 5,
< and giveth grace to the humble ; that humble
CHAP. XIV.] OP ELECTION. 403
themselves therefore under the mighty, or sovereign, supreme hand, or government of God. Ver. 6,
. Be sober and watch, because of your adver
sary ; ver. 8, whom resist stedfast in the faith, ver. 9 ; thus Peter. To confirm this by parallel scripture,
Compare we James, chap. iv. 6, 7, God resists the proud, says he, but gives grace to the humble ; submit yourselves therefore to God : resist the devil, &c. Now, it is evident that the scope of James his exhortation,
is to resist the devil in his assaults in point of lusts ; read ver. 1-4, and
particularly that lust of envy and pride, ver. 5, 6, which were the special lusts of those he wrote unto. Now Peter s exhortation is the same in this par ticular.
Add to this, that we find that sobriety, which is the head of the exhortation,
respecteth abstinence from lusts everywhere. Yea, in our apostle Peter also, 1 Pet. i. 13, Wherefore gird up the loins of your minds (that is, your loose affections), be sober, &c. Sober, in respect unto what ? It follows, Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts, ver. 4. Watch
fulness also, which is the next, is to be understood as chiefly intended
against all sorts of lust ; so Luke xxi. 34, 36, And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. Watch
ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man;
1 Thes. v. 6, 7, Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be
drunken, are drunken in the night. Hence, therefore, this exhortation that
* whom resist, reacheth unto his stirring up of lusts, and tempting us to sin thereby.
follows.
* knowing, that is,
4. Here follows this encouragement unto all these :
* that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that
considering,
are in the world ; that is, to be tempted by him as you are, is the common
lot of all the saints. Now if the encouragement were limited only to persecu tions (as those interpreters would have us understand it), and that yet the
exhortations foregoing, which occasioned this, should be meant of resist
ing Satan in all his temptations unto sin and lusts (as hath been shewn), then this encouragement were too short, if not altogether clean besides, and no way affording any such matter, that should hearten them to resist
Satan in point of sinning, and about lusts it had been utterly foreign ;
it afforded, to be sure, not a correspondent and adequate ground thereunto.
Lastly, Here is a promise, as I shall shew, or prayer (call it which you
will for the present) superadded, to back the whole and every whit of these
things foregone, But the God of all grace, after ye have suffered a while,
shall make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. And the extent
of this promise coming in to back them, shews the extent of these ex
hortations, and mutually the extent of those exhortations do likewise argue
the extent of this promise, specially of that latter exhortation afore it, which
this promise doth immediately follow and succeed, and hath respect to it. And from this last, the promise, it being added to the former, and making
the series of the whole paragraph complete, I shall argue, 1, in the gene
ral, from the completeness of that series ; 2, in particular.
1. In general. Here are three things found in the whole : (1.) the exhorta
tion ; (2.) the encouragement ; (3.) this promise. And these evidently are
all commensurable, of one length and breadth in their extent ; and so large
as the matter and drift of the exhortations do enlarge, is the scope and
matter of the encouragement, and so large as both or each of these are, so
404 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
large is the scope and drift of the promise. For the scope of the promise
is, to hearten unto sobriety, watchfulness, resistance to Satan, and these are
specially to be understood, as in point of lusts and temptation from Satan unto sin.
But this will further appear if we consider the particulars in the pro mise, and how the words of it do suit, and answer to the matter of the ex
hortation.
1. In his styling God the God of all grace, which is the foundation of the promise, and that, as he had said, ver. 5, he giveth grace to the humble. And what is the grace there meant, but grace contrary to the lust
of pride (which is there also mentioned), and by like reason every lust else ? And the opposite grace is intended therein, so as the God of all grace is
that God, who is ready, and will give all sorts of grace and assistance against
all sorts of lusts and temptations thereunto, God having a variety of all
grace suited as a remedy to every lust and assault, as I have at large ex
pounded ; and therefore temptations of all sorts of sins must be meant, commensurably to all grace. Now observe how these are styled sufferings
: After ye have suffered a while ; namely, by and through these temptations, of what kind soever, and
specially in sins, for those are the temptations his grace is the succour unto. And what, shall we, after all this, limit this clause, after ye have suffered, which is in the very midst of all, unto sufferings by persecution only ? Nay,
surely, in all assaults from Satan, wherein it is God shews himself to be a God of (grace most, and of all grace, and promiseth so to be, yea, and in our being foiled by him, therein we are reckoned by this God of grace to
suffer most, and we ourselves look on them so to be^ as also hath been said.
Finally, to .conclude this, the things promised, or the particulars of the matter of the promise, in the next words (which are so many heaped up to include all), do evidently argue the same; which are, that after you have suffered a whfle, he will make you perfect, strengthen, stablish, settle you ; you may discern one contrary from and by another. These all
speak supplies #f grace from the God of grace, opposite to what those
sufferings were,, or to what was in those sufferings, for they contain the remedies against them. To make us perfect, is certainly by giving us more grace ; as in many places of the New Testament : Heb, xiii. 21,
1 Make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. To name no more, it is mostly seen in working opposite graces unto our sins, causing us to grow up to perfect holiness, as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. vii. 1, which in Scripture sense is brought to
pass by further advances thereunto. And such are styled perfect ; that is, comparatively to what they were, or others are ; and so by helping us to overcome those lusts which did formerly so mutiny and war in our members. The other, of strengthening, is spoken in relation to our weak hands and
feeble knees, that make us apt to turn out of the way, and be prevailed upon by Satan. Also
* settling, stabljshing our hearts, in confidence and assurance of his love, against doubts and fears of our acceptation in grace ; as also waverings of spirit, and tossings with winds of doctrines and
opinions ; all these are temptations to sinning and prevailings of sin, which the saints are incident unto, and as reliefs against all which, these words of the promise are directed and intended.
So then, we have gained this high and great point of consolation out of the text, That our God, the God of all grace, who is the looker on in all our conflicts, that as he doth look upon Satan as our adversary, so upon us
CHAP. XIV.] OF ELECTION. 405
his poor children who are the brotherhood that are said to have that one Father, Mat. xxiii. 8, 9, as sufferers under all his temptations ; yea, and as such, and under all our weaknesses, to resist him ; or being exposed, and apt to be prevailed against by Satan, it is that God thus considers, I
say, our weaknesses, for thereunto settle, strengthen, stablish, must needs refer ; even so it pleaseth him to do, than which nothing can be of greater consolation or encouragement.
See, but elsewhere, how the Scripture speaks as concerning this matter. Is Peter tempted and prevailed upon as to deny his master ? Christ in his love terms it a winnowing, as by Satan, so out of infinite tenderness to him he expresseth it, he might have given it a fouler word a being tossed and tumbled by Satan as a sufferer, rather than of a foul and scan dalous dishonouring of himself. Hath Paul a messenger to deal with him, whether with horrid and blasphemous injections, or puffings up of spiritual pride, or both ? See how the Holy Ghost calls it a buffeting, and that of Satan ; makes him a sufferer, a patient in it : 2 Cor. xii. 7,
* And lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure ; he being as truly a sufferer
therein, as a father reckons his child to be, when he is beaten in the streets
by his child s adversary and his own ; and so is provoked to pity and relieve him. The like you have, 1 Cor. x. 13, no temptation hath taken
you. They had fallen into gross sins, yet he calls them by the name of
temptations.
And the reason is, as because he is the God of all grace, and loves our
persons, which makes him to account sin, which is our greatest real misery, so it causeth him to look upon it as it is a misery to us whom he loves,
shall I say, more than he hates sin ? I may say rather than as it is a sin
against himself, especially when he considers how much, and how it is
occasioned by Satan, that hurries on to it. As also, because his grace that is wrought in our hearts, which is but a
drop to what is in him, causeth ourselves to look upon our sins, and cor
ruptions, and temptations, as our greatest miseries. Do you know the
* miserable man that I am, who
heart of him that cried out, and said,
shall deliver me ? And why, and whereupon said he it ? Even for having been held captive. Why should I enlarge upon a point, which all the saints
with one consent will give their verdict in upon experience, who use to
look upon every temptation, the next which they fear to fall into or be cast
into, with as dreadful an eye, as a man that is apt to fevers and agues doth
upon the next fit that is like to come upon him.
And this affords to us great and high consolation, for then it follows that
our sins and infirmities under temptations and Satan s hand, do move God
to pity us, and help, in point of proneness to, or falling into sin, more than
under any other misery that can befall us. Why? For they are the
greatest miseries which his children have, even in his eye, who is their
Father. Well might Paul say, Who shall be against us, if God be for us ?
for if sins, as they are temptations and miseries, do move God for us, what
is it else can be against us ?
: Prov.
Of envy it is said, that it is more fierce than wrath or anger
xxvii. 4, Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous ; but who is able to
stand afore envy ? Wrath hath crimes and injuries usually for its object
to incense it, which yet the consideration of some goodness or worth in the
person may allay and turn away the fierceness of. But envy, having for its
object other men s worth and excellencies, the greater they are, and the
406 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
higher their plea is for a man, the more doth envy swell. But the con
trary is in God, by reason of his love and grace to us. If his love is
pleased to account our sins through temptations, our greatsst misery, so as he is afflicted in all much more than we, a poor, battered, humbled, bruised
sinner, a child of God s whom he hath so loved, and so long, coming and
crying out to God against his sins, and shewing him his wounds, and sores that fester, this moves all that is in God, who is a God of all grace, to
* I have seen his ways, and I will heal him. I ask, how shall anything be able to stand up against such a soul ? What will become of Satan s accusations against such an one ? Or his renewed
this kind resolution,
assaults, though again and again they prevail ? The grace of God towards him will break his heart again, and bring him in again ; and Christ, he will
strike in and intercede for his restoring when fallen, and then for his par don when restored ; and in the end, God will give more grace to overcome, as is promised in the text : After you have suffered a while, the God of all
gracG, by Jesus Christ, shall strengthen, make you perfect
: and where is Satan then, and what is become of all his temptations ?
Another encouragement concerning these sufferings is, that they are said
( accomplished, or
to be
* perfected, ET/rgXs/^a/, in all the brotherhood in the world. There must be some great thing in this, importing this to be a matter wherein God drives on a glorious and mighty design, which he hath to accomplish and perfect ; and that it is a general and an universal
one, wherein every saint in the world hath a share and lot.
There are no passages fall out in the world that have more confusion in them than Satan s temptations, in the varieties of them, exercised on the
spirits of holy men, believers. A poor believer s heart in temptation hath the face of the chaos, and darkness and deformity covers and overspreads
it; the devil sits a-brooding upon the surface of it; and yet there are no
passages out of which God brings forth a greater light and glory in the
issue; even as he then did light, yea, and this whole world, out of that darkness.
To break open this small box of ointment, I have afore opened the significancy of this word here used, but doctrinally then. What I shall now add
is in application, by way of comfort.
1. The word here used hath respect to God s eternal decree and appoint ment, as laying forth and setting out all and every one of them, sufferings in particular, which each shall suffer, as likewise as having ordered them all
in a glorious wisdom to the greatest good. Thus Gerard on the place, quoting Rom. viii. 28, 29, And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his pur pose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren. The coherence whereof with the former speaks this, that there
fore all things, and so temptations, work, and work together, for good; it is the common task and work of all, and that because they are so aforehand
appointed and designed by God so to do; by that God that chose us, and foreknew us, as there; The God of all grace, as here. So that the
apostle s scope herein is, Quiet yourselves by faith as concerning them; let
temptations, or rather let God, have the perfect work of them upon you, by them in you, and the end will be glorious ; Satan is in all your trials, but
working out God s great ends, to his own greater confusion, and your good. Know (says he) that it is God s work which is a-carrying on in all these; and his work is always perfect, Deut. xxxii. 4. And if ever he shewed
his skill, his artifice, in any work, it is in this ; for there is nothing he ever
CHAP. XIV.] OF ELECTION. 407
aimed at more than the devil s confusion and your salvation, and that as they are both carried on together in and by every temptation of yours. And there is not one of them, no, not the least, but tend to make perfect the whole of God s design upon the whole body of his elect, and no one can be wanting to the completing of them. And at the latter day thyself wouldst riot have wanted one of them, how grievous soever they are at present, when thou shalt see how each of thine conduce to the finishing an whole, perfect, and exact story of the body and spouse of Christ, to be joined as a supple ment to that great history of Christ s ; and
< blessed therefore is the man that endureth temptation. It is strange that the sending of Satan should be termed a gift, yet so it is: There was given me the messenger of Satan, or the angel and messenger, Satan; the words bear both, 2 Cor. xii. 7. 2. For thy comfort in thy sufferings, this word gV/rsXsM*/, as I have shewed before, hath a respect unto the perishing and finishing Christ s sufferings. It is Calvin s observation on thewords,* Perfici infiddibus quotidie, qua desunt passionibus Christi ; that is, that hereby are perfected in the saints, I rather say with the apostle, which are behind to the sufferings of Christ ; and do rather understand them to be a new addition to Christ sufferings, in a conformity unto him, which yet he is pleased to reckon his. And here, of our temptations, there is an s<xl added, so making it a compound, which may and here doth import a making perfect a thing that had gone afore ; and so an adding a new perfection unto another former finishing, thereby to render the former yet more perfect.
The only difficulty in this point is, that whereas I include Satan s temp tations to sin, and the fallings of the saints into sin, upon his temptations, to be a part (arid if a part, the greatest part) of the sufferings here intended ; how these can be accounted the perfecting, or an addition to the sufferings, of Christ as our head.
My solution is,
1. That look what is simply matter of temptation in it, as from Satan, on his part, that also was Christ s lot to bear as well as ours, and in like manner to be tempted by him. The place is express, Heb. iv. 15, Who was in all
points tempted as we are, yet without sin. His exception, without sin, is to be understood that the temptations, whatever they were, were without
sinning on his part as to the issue of the temptation in himself. But as for the temptation itself, as on Satan s part, he was tempted in all things, that
* like as we. And therefore for us to be followed with the same temptations, by the same devil (that apart and alone considered), is but a conformity unto Christ as our head, and so to accomplish, or make
is, all sorts of ways,
perfect, the after-temptations of Christ.
2. But, secondly, consider them as sins which do accompany them in us ;
yet such is the grace of our God, that although, as now we are creatures, and persons in ourselves considered, he looks upon all our sins as great
guiles and defilements in us, and abominations loathsome to himself, yet he,
considering us as members of his Son though not as members of him in our sinning: God forbid, for that is the devil s work he looks upon us who do so sin, and whilst we sin, as members appertaining unto Christ; and in this
respect he accounts our sinnings our sufferings (such is his goodness), yea, and the divine nature in the saints too, which in its kind, though with im
perfection, is affected in things as God is, doth cause them to look upon their own sinnings as their sufferings, and of all the greatest. And each
cries out, miserable man that I am ! and they do cast them into that
account and head of sufferings endured in their lives. And thou that
* See Calvin in locum.
408 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
reckonest them not among thy pleasures, but thy greatest afflictions, thou shalt have in the end a victory from the God of all grace, and he will sup port, and in the end perfect, thee. And Christ, that was himself tempted, and who overcame Satan for thee, will overcome Satan in thee ; he will cause thee to triumph in the end, and to be
* more than a conqueror. 8. Unto both which I may add further, for our comfort and relief, as
touching this particular, that not Christ, whilst on earth only, hath suffered from Satan as well as we in the manner specified, but to accomplish this his Father s great design in us and upon us, it is that he suffers himself now in heaven to be, though not tempted, yet I may say troubled, with this
devil (pardon the word, till you hear how I mean it). But it is wholly for
us, and on our behalf, and for our sakes, for whom he there appears an ad vocate ; that is, that although Christ hath already de jure despoiled Satan of all his power against us, further than as God gives new, fresh, and occa sional leave; and himself, now in heaven, is no way exposed to he tempted by him, as whilst he was on earth, nor in any such respect may be said so to be in his own person; yet he hath left so much power to him against us, as doth occasion much work to himself, which after the day of judgment he shall be eased of. Himself is still greatly exercised upon occasions from him in behalf of us. That very office of advocuteship of his, which he hath undertaken for us, was in a great measure set up, and on purpose occasioned by God to oppose Satan, and to take our parts, and maintain our lot against him at the throne of God, He obtains leave of God to tempt and winnow us, and then goes and accuseth us unto God ; and upon all such accusations Christ is put to pray full hard for us now, as well as whilst he was on earth for Peter. And in John xvii. for all the apostles, that our faith fail not ; because Satan thus both winnows and thus accuseth us to God. I may say as Paul of himself to the Galatians,* Gal. vi. 17, in another case, Christ is put to business, yea, unto much business, by reason of Satan, and that by means of our sinnings and corruptions. And he hath also greatly to do with Satan about the ruling of this world, a great deal of work to overthrow Satan s designs therein ; and both in that too, and which is for our sakes, in this other of his assaults upon us, &c., Christ exposeth him
self to a kind of trial with him upon multitudes of occasions, that is, tries
it out with him; because Satan will still be meddling, and opposing bim, and putting it to the vie, who shall carry it and prevail
: Satan, the prince of the air, the God of this world ; or he the King of saints, the Lord of lords. Christ disputes every inch of ground he wins from him, in our hearts and in the world. I have spoken this to the end that if Christ, not only when he was on earth, but now he is in heaven, hath, and hath had, so much to do with him, then may you comfort and quiet yourselves, though you con tinue to be exercised with him in sore vexations whilst on earth ; for now it
is that your turn is come of sufferings to bear your part on earth, after Christ had first gone through his upon earth, as a fulfilling the after-
sufferings of Christ ; and since now, whilst in heaven, he is still exercised
thus, and is fain to wait till this his enemy be actually and de facto per
fectly subdued, and made his footstool, we should then be heartened under them and against them, expecting that happy issue which Christ himself doth.
* So the word signifies, Gal. vi. 17. translated trouble me.
CHAP. XV.] OF ELECTION. 409